#retrofest2025 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #retrofest2025, aggregated by home.social.
-
One week until #RetroFest2025 Cambridge! I'm not exhibiting this time, but I will be there with a few choice #Psion devices, like some peddler of PDA contraband.
Anyone else going to be there?
-
At #Retrofest2025 earlier this year there was a discussion about books. Somebody recommended The Soul Of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder. Sadly, I can't remember who that was, but I'd like to thank them as I have just finished reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I will also pass on the recommendation to anybody that wants to hear about the creation of a new Super Mini Computer by Data General in the late 70s. It looks like Hackaday recommends it too https://hackaday.com/2016/08/26/books-you-should-read-the-soul-of-a-new-machine/
-
Some of the highlights of #RetroFest2025 as filmed by @breakintoprogram here https://youtu.be/V_qpgc6c8B4?feature=shared&t=1867
(Although ignore the idiot in an #RC2014 shirt waffling on about Z80 kits 31 minutes in)
-
Sorry I didn't toot from #RetroFest2025 at the weekend. Even if I had Mastodon on my phone, things were way too busy to have kept up with social media anyway.
Had a fantastic time. My stall had the RC2014 Mini II Picasso kits confusing everybody. I was also using @Wintermute_BBS TMSnake game to lure people in (although I think I was being trolled with the high score!)
Lots of great people there, and some very inspirational conversations with a lot of them. Some wonderful exhibits too. Sadly I didn't get many photos, but I couldn't help buy make a visual pun on one of them.
Can't wait for the RetroFest sister event in Cambridge in November.
-
Swindon may seem humdrum, but there's always Astral Travel for the more adventurous.
-
Here's another form factor I wish still existed - the lunchbox.
-
Adrian of Binary Dinosaurs is a character, and this machine is a gem. It's a dedicated word processor (those were a thing once upon a time - see the history of Wang Laboratories) and the UI is really well thought out. The screen is portrait and can display a full page of text quite legibly. The black line you see near the lower edge is the type head - it stays in that position, and scrolling winds the page past the type head. It's the opposite of a full screen editor, and very close to how you interact with a typewriter. There is a set of commands for listing the files on the disk. There's no hierarchical filesystem.
Stunning device, completely new to me. The chief dinosaur also graciously booted CP/M on it, using the Software Interface Layer disk and then CP/M.
-
Richard of http://www.dragondata.co.uk got to spread out across two display tables today, with a collection of unique Dragon prototypes. He was incredibly generous with his time!
I knew the #Dragon32 had a lot in common with the #TandyColorComputer, but I'd always assumed that was thanks to some kind of licencing arrangement. That's not the case! Richard describes the Dragon 32 as an "incompatible clone" of the #CoCo. Yet Tandy chose not to sue, because the CoCo in turn was a copy of the Motorola 6809 reference implementation!
-
Single-stepping an original #Altair8080 through a #BASIC program which renders the Mandelbrot set... on a #Teletype.
Listen to the Teletype slowing down for the calculations that require more iterations. Beautiful.
-
Day two, Sunday, #Swindon #RetroFest2025 at the #STEAMmuseum:
A Tadpole Sparcbook 3000XT running Solaris 2.6 and my favourite UNIX workstation-era graphical desktop, CDE.
In the months before the Great Dotcom Crash of 2000, the company I worked for had bought out a Silicon Valley start-up that was building a web-based mail client. It was a shambles, spinning up a long-lived executable for each client connection, but I remember being deeply impressed by the Tadpole one of the US developers brought with him to Ireland. It cost $10,000, he told us. That's $18,700 in 2025 dollars.
-
Due to me leaving it too late, had a brief but fun trip to #retrofest2025! Had an enjoyable chat about early Hornby controllers and had fun looking at all the wonderful demos and old tin.
-
Coming tomorrow: Acorn replicas, a super-rare Dragon Professional prototype, RC2014 systems, a PiDP11 or two, and probably more.
-
More snaps from #RetroFest2025:
...and more to come tomorrow. I'm hoping it'll be quieter. There were loads of standholders I didn't get to chat to, including the RP2014 and PiDP11 folks and Eduard, who also flew over from Dublin, who's exhibiting his collection of Soviet-era calculators.
-
Just had a wonderful day of intense geekery, bouncing between a packed out #RetroFest2025 at #STEAMmuseum and #MuseumOfComputingSwindon.
At the former, loads of familiar British machines, esoteric 8-bit machines and some 16- and 32-bit Workstations with now-extinct CPU families.
At the latter, a well-presented collection of early hobbyist and personal computers, again with a very solid showing of British machines, many of which you're invited to get hands-on with.
-
I checked in with Keith, chief curator at #Swindon's #MuseumOfComputing, to find out if they were going to be open extended hours during #RetroFest2025. Unfortunately, they're not, due to a lack of volunteers.
In Keith's words:
We are a volunteer run museum, and we are working out what we can support over that weekend. As we are also hosting a stand at RetroFest, I'm not sure we will have the resources to open the museum beyond our normal Saturday times (09:30 to 17:00). If that changes we will publicise it via our social media accounts.
So make sure to drop in and share the love! I certainly will be!
-
"Silicon-chip technology has brought the computer into the small business, where it can be used for accounting and stock control."
"How Things Work", 1981 edition, available for a bargain charity donation price at the #STEAMmuseum #Swindon.
-
Delighted to discover my hotel is only 1400 metres from #Swindon's famous (infamous?) #MagicRoundabout!
-
Today has mostly involved kitting up lots of #RC2014 stock to take down to #RetroFest2025 this coming weekend.
I can't take everything that's on the #z80kits store, but if you're coming along and want something specific, let me know and I will make sure to bring some along.
And if you are planning to come along, please buy your ticket soon. Saturday is almost sold out and Sunday is filling up pretty quick.
https://www.retrofest.uk/ -
I inadvertently printed out two complete copies of "Mapping the Atari", 1985 revised edition, double-sided, in colour (as much as there is) scaled to A4.
I've bound them both (with those springy plastic things) and put a cardboard cover on the back and a plastic film on the front, like a corporate brochure.
I'm heading to #RetroFest2025. I have brought a copy, if anyone who's going would like it!
#MappingTheAtari #DeadTreeEdition #RetroComputing #atari8bit #atari130xe #atari800 #atari800xl
-
#RetroFest2025 is now international!
Everyone in the hotel have to pass this screen on their way to the restaurants. Viva la revolution that is RetroFest 2025.
www.retrofest.uk
-
Just emailed #MuseumOfComputing #Swindon to find out if they're planning any events to coincide with #RetroFest2025, or are considering extended opening hours. They're listed as sponsors of RetroFest 2025.